Jets poor start continues

Cheshire Jets’ miserable start to the season continued with their fourth defeat in a row, 59-80, to the hands of Leicester Riders in tonight’s first BBL Championship fixture for both sides.

With a very tight, but low scoring, first quarter, much was left to ponder. Cheshire just edged the scoring 17-15, but their best lead of the period was at the start by five points, as Riders were always ready to hit back and keep in contention.

After the break, it seemed as though neither side were wanting to take any initiative, with poor shot execution from both sides, and it took over two minutes before any score was posted.

Midway through the second quarter, Leicester began moving through the gears, and after a big Cameron Rundles three pointer pushed the Riders into the lead, 21-22, they took control of the game.

Turnovers and the continued agony of shots not dropping allowed the visitors to the Northgate to slowly stretch their lead out to 11 points at one stage. Cheshire struggled to claw the score back going in to the locker room, and found themselves 29-38 down at half time.

It was more of the same for the home side during the third quarter, with the rot having set in, the inability to take advantage of having Leicester in foul trouble, both in drawing the foul and of converting free throws to get back into the game, Cheshire quickly found a double figure deficit in front of them – with the blame needing to lie firmly at their door. The quarter ended 43-65 in favour of Riders.

With the tie pretty much laid to rest barring a comeback of epic proportions, it was mainly about damage limitation for Cheshire. With the atmosphere in the Northgate Arena somewhat frosty and disheartened, the final ten minutes of play saw a mini revival from Cheshire, only for that to be cancelled out by a late push again from Leicester, to finish 59-80.

Jets’ head coach, John Lavery, after the game conceded that his side currently are not playing to the best of their abilities, saying: “I don’t think we’re playing well at the moment at all, obviously throughout the season you are going to have highs, you are going to have lows. “At the moment we just need to get that win and when we do get that win we’ll be fine”, he added.

The stats tell quite a story, and both sides could have produced a high scoring game had shots been better executed.

However Cheshire’s overall scoring percentage across court in open play was just over 31%. Matt Schneck, despite a double-double of 18 points and 17 rebounds, could only muster up a fifth of his free throws (2 from 10). Bar Schneck, no Jets player could manage more than 40% of their field goals, and for many in the crowd, it was a white knuckle ride for all the wrong reasons.

Lavery knows that although this week’s final BBL Trophy group game away to Mersey Tigers has no bearing on the group, as Sheffield qualified over the weekend, it is still vital for his side to make that improvement and progress he desires: “We’re going to go there, try and do our hardest and win the game.

“It doesn’t matter if it will make any difference to the trophy standings we want to go out and do our best for this organisation and we will put it right on the practice floor and you’ll see the results of that in the forthcoming weeks.”

It also signals a number of games away from home, but he has no issue, nor inclination, to find excuses for his side’s current form and is expecting soon enough for his team to deliver; no matter what venue or team they face: “We’ve got a new bunch of guys, playing at home, playing away, it shouldn’t make any difference.

“When you walk into an arena, it’s the same size court, the same size basketball, all we’ve got to do is do a better job and put the ball in the basket. It’s as simple as that.”

Cheshire Jets: 17, 29, 43, 59
Leicester Riders: 15, 38, 65, 80

Jets: Schneck (18), O’Reilly (13), Cole (11)
Riders: Wierzbicki (19), Sullivan (16), Hardy (15)